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 to identify appropriate features that reflected the election district boundaries; this would guarantee that the Census Bureau would use these features as the boundaries of its 1990 census blocks. Subsequently, the Puerto Rico Planning Board annotated approximate election district codes and boundaries based on the blocks depicted on the 1990 census maps. The Census Bureau offered this program even though Puerto Rico is not covered by Public Law 94-171, which requires that the Census Bureau provide the States with this opportunity. Puerto Rico chose to participate and, as a result, the Census Bureau was able to provide the Commonwealth with data tabulations for 1,606 election districts. This special program was called the Block Boundary Definition Project.

The economic censuses report data for Puerto Rico and each municipio (first-order subdivision). They use the MCDs for sample design, but not for data tabulations. The 1982 economic censuses also reported data by MA, but the 1987 and 1992 economic censuses used MAs only for the census of construction industries and the census of manufactures, while the censuses of retail trade, wholesale trade, and services provided data for nine Commonwealth-defined groupings of municipios called commercial regions. In addition, the census of retail trade published data for central business districts (CBDs) and major retail centers (MRCs), as delineated by the Puerto Rico Planning Board, for the 1963 through 1982 censuses. The Census of Agriculture provides data for Puerto Rico, the municipios, and five Commonwealth-defined groupings of municipios called agriculture regions; the latter have been recognized since the 1964 census.

The Virgin Islands of the United States is an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States located immediately east of Puerto Rico (see ). Although more than 50 separate islands and cays constitute this westernmost of the Lesser Antilles, only three have a size and population of any significance: St. Thomas, St. Croix, and St. John (see and ). Almost all the other islets are both uninhabited and uninhabitable. Most of the population is shared equally by St. Croix Puerto Rico and the Outlying Areas7-37